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Ireland to hold referendum on fiscal treaty

Ireland will hold a referendum on the fiscal compact treaty, Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, said today.

Kenny told the Irish parliament this afternoon that he had received advice from the attorney-general that a referendum should be held.

Kenny said: “I am very confident that when the importance and merit are communicated to the Irish people that they will endorse it emphatically by voting ‘Yes’ to continuing economic stability and recovery.”

Leaders of 25 EU member states are scheduled to sign the treaty at a summit in Brussels this week (1-2 March).

The Irish people have voted ‘No’ to two EU treaty revisions. They voted against the Nice treaty in June 2001, but voted for it in a second vote a year later. Irish voters also voted ‘No’ to the Lisbon treaty in 2008 and approved it in a second vote in 2009.

The fiscal compact treaty is designed to enforce stricter economic discipline. It requires countries to write a ‘debt brake’ into national legislation.

A rejection by Irish voters would not mean the end of the treaty as it comes into force when 12 countries have signed it.

Nicolai Wammen, Denmark’s EU affairs minister, told journalists in Brussels today: “The presidency fully respects the will of the Irish government in calling for a referendum and we will of course look forward to seeing the outcome of such a referendum. It is a national decision by the Irish government that we fully respect. The process will continue in many other countries as planned.”

Maroš Šefčovič, the European commissioner for inter-institutional relations and administration, said: “We have full confidence that the Irish government will honour the commitment it undertook when it agreed to the new treaty.”

The decision by the Irish government may strengthen calls in other eurozone countries to put the treaty to a popular vote. In France, François Hollande, the Socialist candidate in the presidential election, has said he wants to renegotiate the treaty.